Bump. Big time. (And I found something too)Ok, first of all, this was the first thread I viewed on this forum last year when I first discovered ARG stuff (which I immediately loved as soon as I figured out what it was, considering I was already playing the not-too-dissimilar Mr. Logic games (similar to notpr0n for those who don't know)).

I decided that, since I am now a member of this wonderful website and am lurking on/somewhat contributing to Writing on the Moon, I would track this thread back down and see if the mystery had been solved.

I am pleased to see it at least had some new posts since I last was here, however that mystery which originally entranced me so still remains.

I thought that I might bump this back to the top of the list so that a group of new, fresh minds might unravel this strange series of sites.

This page, at first, appears to be an automatically generated page stating that there is not yet a default page for that technically valid subdirectory. However, upon closer inspection, I have come to believe that the page is NOT auto-generated.
I doubt an auto-generated page would have a blue i symbol actually located within the related subdirectory. The blue i on that page lives at http://video.stumbledupon.com/pagerror.gif

I tried running the image through the old magic wand trick I learned from the Mr. Logic games (which I'm surprised wasn't on the ARG player's tutorial, considering how simple yet crafty it is), but got nothing.

oh, and as far as the all 1s thing goes. That seems to happen every time I open the page with another tab open. Regardless of what site (I tried it in both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, using both Google and Unforums as the other tab).

Edit while writing original post: wierd, it stopped happening after I tried it a few more times....

Ok, now it happens every time I refresh in Firefox, with this post editor open, but only some times in Chrome, with Google open.

That page is weird. Also, perhaps, not only is there an extra A in the anagram, but also an extra . and a -

Perhaps an alternate ending (already tried .co.am, doesn't exist)

Or a subdomain (already tried -a.mangolab.com)

Or a file (mangolab.com/-a.htm didn't work)

tried to access the site's root. (ftp://mangolab.com) It has a username and password prompt. Let me try the same for stumbledupon.com...

Weird, ftp://stumbledupon.com is a blank ftp page. Then how come I can see webpages on the site? Maybe I'm wrong to assume that forcing ftp will give you a list of html files. I don't know a ton about web coding.

ETA: co.ma exists, but it didn't work.

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 12:19 pm

sub-xero
Boot

Joined: 29 Dec 2004Posts: 38Location: The good old UK

Ok, I've just jumped on this as it had fewer posts in comparison to others now and I'm looking for a new project aside from the Jerusalem UFO, (I'm drawn to these oddities lol)

Anyway after checking out all the bits and pieces and various websites associated with it I must say I am none the wiser. It's true to say that many of the sponsors look legit. Although why bag companies?

And being INCREDIBLY uneducated in codes and programming I too cannot offer much deeper than riddle solving and puzzles. but if you feel the desire to enlist my assistance in any way I'm lurking on this.

Very curious. . .

Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 4:20 pm

duke9509
Entrenched

Joined: 03 Apr 2011Posts: 812

WHOOPS...

Just noticed that there's actually not an extra period. Just an A and a hyphen.

the period I thought was extra is the dot in .com

Posted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 6:04 pm

lisalou
Guest

mangolab websitehas anyone noticed when you go into the help section, it gives you a form to offer youre email address " let us assist you with finding an online QUOTATION"??? i found this site a year ago its driving me nuts too lol

Posted: Wed May 04, 2011 8:27 am

duke9509
Entrenched

Joined: 03 Apr 2011Posts: 812

Ok, page was updated last month. The names are now separate gifs from the quotes. The anagram is further divided into

- A. G Lamb
(
Monaco
)
WWW.

Tried magic wanding all of these, got nothing. But, it means that the "PM" is still making changes every once in a blue moon.

All of the images are still named after bag stuff.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 1:16 pm

Lystella
Unfettered

Joined: 02 Feb 2010Posts: 394

Possible lead on the extra "a," virtue, and the tumblerQuotes are denoted through bold text. I wasn't sure what should or shouldn't be spoilered either.

Couple things I noticed at the main page of Mangolabs:

The Mangolab gif has this text (in order of appearance):
if <you>
***?!need
. . .?*HELP!
then
goto

Viewing the media section in page info (as opposed to page source) for the Mangolabs gif by the bulleted links yields this associated text: if...then...goto... - the only bit of code you need to know

META (maybe?)

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

While the page loads, bbc.co.uk appears on the bottom bar as one of the places Mangolab "transfers data from"

In reference to the anagram with the extra "a":

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Using the info from the gif, I went to the help section. I then went to the request a free no-obligation quotation page considering that the stumbledupon page with the anagram had quotations.

There I found an image with @ (which has an "a" in it). By looking at the page info, the associated text with the @ image reads: Mangolab consultation request

On the request a free no-obligation quotation page from the Mangolab help section, another image with the text we respect your privacy makes reference to the virtue of respect through its name "respect.gif" and also has this associated text in page info: Mangolab security services

The page info for the submit details button gif has this associated text: send this information to us

Following the Mangolab security services lead, I went to the security services page from the services section. There i checked the page info once more to find the associated text Mangolab security services for the safe tumbler image called "tumbler.jpg"

Clicking on the security-services contact form link provided, a page with the same tumbler image (and same associated text)and a contact form is reached. The respect gif is also found on this page but with a different associated text: your contact details

The same submit details gif with the same associated text is shown as well.

Edit: Virtue and tumbler continued

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

I followed the link to their privacy policy and found a different @ image named "at_lock.gif" with associated text: Mangolab can help you

From that page, I followed the contact us link to a page with the same @ from the quotation request page but with different associated text: oops, sorry

Following the Please read link, I am taken to a page that includes this text:
If you would like to get in touch then email us at helpSPLATmangolab.com but please be sure to use the word 'Columbo' in the subject line of the email. We ask you to do this because we receive thousands of spam emails every day, and using this keyword allows us to automatically differentiate your email from a spam request. We do manually scan for genuine emails that do not use the keyword, but occasionally some get missed!

Alternatively, you may prefer to use our security-services information request form, or our free-quotation request form or contact us using more traditional methods.

Nonetheless, I can't help wonder if I wandered around a bit more than necessary, or if any of this info is relevant.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 2:56 pm

duke9509
Entrenched

Joined: 03 Apr 2011Posts: 812

Hey, try anything at this point! This has been around since '99. That was pretty good. I will admit, it could be seen as far fetched, but only slightly so.

While I don't think this could be the whole answer, as it doesn't do anything with the tumblers aligning, it could very well be part of the answer. (it could be the "place" to go with the "time)

I anxiously await a response to your message.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 3:37 pm

Sarah B
Unfettered

Joined: 21 Apr 2007Posts: 616Location: Stonehenge, UK

Has anyone tried installing and running the 'free downloads' available from the mangolab website?

I had a vague idea about the extra a. Hasn't come to anything for me yet, but I thought I'd mention it to you all incase it helps someone else; an extra a on the mangolab site somewhere? Like a word with an extra a in it, that can be clicked on perhaps? Like banaana or something. I dunno, I'm still having a mooch around.

Interestingly, Google have a "owner-verified listing" place page for MangoLab at that address. On street-view it just looks like a house in a residential street though. The house (/building) last sold in November 2000. Mangolab's website is the top result on Google for a search of "mangolab" too, topping out a club called The Mango Lab and others.

_________________Currently Playing: Are You The 1701, Cardkeepers
Lurking: Anything awesome-looking

If there had been a bear there, until it was Baloo, but there was no bear there. - Jasper Ffforde's Great Samuel Pepys Fffiasco

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 3:59 pm

sandwich
Guest

If you go onto their customer testimonials, there is a picture with a CD and binary code over it. Don't know if the binary says anything but its worth a try!

I have only looked at it a little but there is rather a lot of info there to be combed through. This was just kind of randomly picking this up, I know really nothing about it :-/

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 12:30 pm

duke9509
Entrenched

Joined: 03 Apr 2011Posts: 812

I had the wonderful idea to use the Wayback Machine to see if that webstie had been different at one time.

stumbledupon.com was first crawled in September of 2001.
At this time, the page title (tab title) was "welcome to sas (spangle appreciation society)" (????)
The page itself was a domain parking page, stating that it was available for rent. It's still tied to Mangolab, which seemed to, at one point, also rent out domains.

In March of '04, it becomes a smaller version of thebestshowever.com

In April of '05, it becomes exactly like thebestshowever.com minus the search box

In May, it gained the search box.

In April of 07, it became a directory similar in format to Goldstork, but with only one list, and without Goldstork's strangeness. It even had a from to submit pages to their directory.

Not sure when it was added. Didn't notice. However, the "about" page:

Quote:

The concept for StumbledUpon.com was originally devised in 1997 and has not yet been fully realised. StumbledUpon aims to list offbeat sites of interest and then add a little fun twist... so please keep visiting regularly if you want to find out what this will be and thank you for your continued support of our site!

The Stumbledupon like we know appeared first in September of '08.
I checked the /backdoor page on Goldstork. Wayback's first copy of it is from July of '08... about a month after the "activity" on the vault ended.

I have to go. I'll edit this post later.

EDIT: Ok, so, Wayback first saw Goldstork in 08. Also, the old Stumbledupon was actually more similar to Goldstork than I thought.

I've been trying to use Yahoo Site Explorer, but it would seem that they have hidden the puzzle-related pages, including the message/tumblers page.

Although, I found, on Mangolab's site, a page that holds a strange iframe memorial for Princess Diana. (???) It's part of a webring, and, by clicking through profile links of the person who manages that particular webring, I tracked down this site: http://bonni.net complete with contact page. I'm a little hesitant to send the possible PM an email, though. Oh, the Diana memorial was at: www.mangolab.com/onlinememorialtodiana.htm.

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